CG Restaurants and Bars has acquired a major site for its Dirty Martini brand on Manchester’s Deansgate, to open in the summer. The 6,700 square feet space over three floors will now be subject to a £1.5m investment before it becomes the tenth Dirty Martini location in all. It will be the second venue outside London, following a launch in Cardiff. Chief executive Scott Matthews said: “Our recent expansion in Cardiff has been a huge success, and as a result we are progressing with our national expansion strategy with confidence.” The company plan to grow to 15 Dirty Martini sites by the end of 2017. They are seeking high footfall areas in Central London, Greater London & large UK city centres. View their property requirements here.
All Bar One is joining the host of brands at the West Quay Watermark development in Southampton with a launch on 20 January. The bar will have 140 covers across 280 square metres, and will be All Bar One’s 53rd location in all. Wahaca is also opening at the Watermark development very soon, while American barbecue concept Red Dog Saloon opened there in the last few days of 2016.
All Bar One continue to seek new sites across the UK, you can view their property requirements here. Priority target locations include Bristol, Plymouth and Leicester.
The Fulham Shore group says it has exchanged contracts on three new sites in London for its Franco Manca pizzeria brand, for openings in the spring: Putney, Russell Square and Richmond. Before then, Franco Manca will open at the new Nova Victoria development in February.
Five Guys opened in Exeter in late December. It has taken up a space on Queen Street there.
Land Securities has marked the topping out of its new 65,000 square feet leisure extension to the White Rose shopping centre in Leeds, which will be home to restaurants including Wagamama, TGI Friday’s, Chiquito and Pizza Hut when it opens in the summer. The restaurants will be joined by an IMAZ cinema, event space and children’s play area.
Côte opens a brasserie on the high street in Worcester on Monday (9 January). It will be followed by an opening in Weybridge in early February.
Oakman Inns is opening a pub in Ascot: the Royal Foresters, previously run as a Beefeater and Premier Inn. It paid £3.6m for the site and will now redevelop it ahead of an opening in the autumn. Oakman has also submitted an application to convert a former nursing home in Olney to a pub.
Loungers will open its Cosy Club brand at the new Brewery Quarter development in Cheltenham next month, local media report. Other operators including Coast to Coast and Wagamama are also due to open in the Quarter.
MeatLiquor will open at St Chad’s Place in King’s Cross in April, it has confirmed.
Wagamama has signed to open at the St Andrew Square development in Edinburgh, and should launch in the summer. Brands including Dishoom and Drake & Morgan have already taken space at the scheme.
The Tasty Group’s Wildwood brand opened at the Barons Quay development in Northwich in late December. It has also applied for permission to open at the Crescent development in Hinckley in Leicestershire.
Living Ventures’ Gusto brand will open its latest new restaurant in West Bridgford in February. It will be the group’s 16th location.
A new street food catering start-up called Feast It launches on 17 January. It is working with around 100 restaurants and mobile vendors to offer what it describes as the Airbnb of event catering, providing a platform on which event organisers can book suppliers. Participants include Patty & Bun, The Breakfast Club and Dirty Burger. Co-founder Digby Vollrath said: “We wanted to create a platform that would take as much of the hassle out of organising events, as well as celebrate London’s incredible independent culinary scene. The process of booking catering hasn’t really changed over the last 10 years; it’s needlessly labour intensive and almost impossible to find the full range of food that’s actually available when you need it. We wanted to create a platform that helps people realise the amazingly diverse and delicious options available to them as well as book event catering from the chefs they already love.”
Marston’s has started work on a new-build pub restaurant at the John Smith business park in Kirkcaldy. It should open in June.
A new pan-Asian restaurant and cocktail bar called Miusan opens on Inverness Street in Camden soft launches on Tuesday (10 January). It has been modeled on the opium dens of the 1940s, and has a basement dance floor and private hire mezzanine as well as a ground floor bar and restaurant.
Quick service Chinese brand Chopstix has opened in Belfast as part of a franchise agreement with the Henderson group, the company behind SPAR locations in Northern Ireland. You can view Chopstix’s property requirements here.
Domino’s opened a new site in Paragon Square in Hull in late December—with an eat-in restaurant area as well as takeaway facilities. It is the brand’s biggest UK restaurant space to date.
The Modern Pantry on Finsbury Square is opening the Alpha Beta Bar on Monday (16 January). The concept has been developed with mixologist Ryan Chetiyawardana.
The Caskade Group, a franchisee for Taco Bell in the South East & South West have released a set of target locations. These include Poole, Richmond, Portsmouth and Brighton, you can view their full requirements here.
Inferno Pizza have rebranded as PizzaStorm and are seeking new sites in London and major cities across the UK. The company are paying up to £35,000 introduction fees on successful acquisitions. You can view their property requirements here.
